Paris South Iberia Left

Before getting to today’s business, I got a lil announcement: I’ll be podcasting from none other then París, France this weekend! Yes… thanks to hitchhikers.org I got hooked up with a bunch of students who rented a bus and are going down for the weekend.. 40 euros round trip, I couldn’t turn it down.

This means the AudioCommuniqué will have a decidedly Français flavor to it and just wait for all the madness that comes out of bicyclemark in that environment. Remember April 2004, my last visit? Gotta make sure all my batteries are charged and equipment is ready, cause we’re talking soundseeing, interviews, language melange, etc.

I’ll also be visiting with a laundry list of my favorite people ever, who have all migrated to that city in the past years: Shakespeare who studied with me in Aix, BlueBerry Girl who handles the World’s Bank money, Big Jim who’s still settling in, and my Polish compadre who studied with me here in the ‘dam. I’m psyched… anybody need anything from Paris?

Onward to business. I consider myself an Iberian blogger, because my heritage and my legal status is tied to Portugal and hence, the Iberian peninsula. And sometimes, amidst all the stupidity and debauchery, Spain and Portugal do some cool shit that I like watching. Which is exactly what happened this weekend.

The political left is back in business in PT, with the socialist party taking a big ol majority. More importantly, my boys the Left Block, the thinkers, the guys who don’t dress well for parliament, they gained seats! Even the Communist/Greens gained, which is fun too. Don’t get me wrong, its typical political crap, less then 6 years ago they got all pissy with the socialists and kicked them the hell out, and now they welcome them back like potential saviors.. same shit.. hooray for democracy and its goldfish memory.

Also quite interesting, the Spaniards went to the polls.. well.. some of them, and they voted YES to the European Constitution. I understand some of the criticism out there about this document, but overall it promotes a standard of human rights that I think is a pretty good start, so I’m psyched the voters support it. Lots of countries in Europe, including my dear Netherlands and Portugal look like they might reject it in a referendum, but at the very least, it was cool to see Spain go for it.

What… you don’t like European Politics? 25 countries… 10 languages or whatever… how can you not be curious? I find it fun in a very watching paint dry type way.

For real fun, consult the HUN, my new daily read, and BigTanky who sent a nice email.